Performers

With the main act complete, I’ve moved on to the supporting act. This time it’s two showgirls. Overall I used very similar techniques to Cassandra and Colette, but I wanted to vary the skin tones a little. There is a third showgirl model, but she’s a limited edition and while I’ll probably pick her up if the stars align and she’s available, but I don’t think I would ever actually run 3 Showgirls. Still I’m only just learning Colette and to be frank struggling to get much traction with her so who knows how I might be playing her in a month or two.

With the showgirl in the skinny dress I was aiming for a darker, yellower skin. As if her background was more Asian than the white-procelain colour I’d used for Colette and Cassandra. The colours were very similar to those two, and while slightly different shades were used, it was more down to emphasis and balance of the colours rather than difference in the colours used.Skinny:

One extra item is that I picked out the eyebrows. While terribly exaggerated, I think this gives the face some structure, that is missing from the other girls. That said on Colette the hat shades this area and makes this area fairly subdued, while Cassandra is blond (so the eyebrows are muted) and has bangs.

One thing that is probably worth noting about how I’m doing the skin is that I’m spending more time on this component than any other. Each layer is almost unnoticeable when it is put on and every colour is applied at least 2-3 times (sometimes many more). The result is very minor variations that you almost have to trust are there. All the paints are watered down to 50% paint and 50% water, and sometimes more. The only exception is the extreme highlights which is in the 25% water, 75% paint ball park. However, this is literally applied to a half dozen tiny spots – never brushed, just touched on. While very time consuming I think it is worth it. Our eyes are drawn to the face and flesh, the clothes, equipment, shoes are all secondary to our eyes. After we’ve assessed the face we then move onto these other parts, and then it’s often quite a superficial glance rather than a prolonged look.